SubRemnant
by Mecharic
Summary: The Beacon was supposed to build a Phase Gate for the Schnee Trade Co., not crash land on a desolate ocean world on the ass-end of the galaxy. How did it come to this? And how will they survive on this hostile planet that seems hell bent on killing everyone who's left? (Spoilers for the game SubNautica) (Warnings for Gore, Violence, and Major Character Deaths) (Tragedy Genre too)
1. Brace for Impact!

**EDIT: So for some reason Fanfiction doesn't like it when I have line breaks... because Fanfiction. So I added them. I, uh, *may* have also mistakenly typed "Planet 456B" instead of "Planet 4546B". A lot. Oops. Fixed. *awkward cough* My bad.**

* * *

The _Beacon_ : A Supercarrier-Class Warship purchased by the Schnee Trading Company and refurbished into a vast construction ship capable of housing 150 crew and 250 passengers with ease, as well as using the old Docking Bay to store huge quantities of materials needed for long-term survival and construction projects far from friendly or inhabited space. Once a weapon of war, now a _Beacon_ of hope for a better and more profitable future. The _Beacon_ was dispatched for the long-term purpose of building a Phase Gate in the Alorian Sector, a sparsely inhabited region of space known for being fairly dangerous but very resource-rich. The massive vessel was currently en-route to a planet known as Degasi (nobody knows why the colonists named it that in the year 2714, they just did) to collect the final part of its formidable cargo: food and the means to grow more. Degasi was an agricultural planet under the management of the esteemed Arc Agriculture, which specialized in producing food and technologies to allow food growth under any conditions.

Along the way, however, the _Beacon_ detected a distress signal from a super-earth planet in the uninhabited system designated only "4546". 4546B, the specific planet from which the signal was coming, was a planet with a breathable atmosphere, but remained uninhabited due to being mostly oceanic. The signal in question came from an old Atlas Inc. expeditionary ship called _The Glenn_ , which had gone missing a stunning 12 years ago. For anyone to have survived that long on an ocean world hinted at dedication to living rivaled only by fictional characters and the rare, well, survivor. As per Galactic Code, the _Beacon_ had no choice but to answer the distress signal or risk a serious fine from the Galactic Collective. So, as per the rules, the Captain of the ship redirected the main hyperspace drive, and made the leap into the 4546 system. They'd get there in about 10 minutes, and reach the planet in another 20.

All this and more the _Beacon_ s Captain noted, filed, and reacted to with the speed of an enhanced like herself, literally modified in order to better pilot such a magnificent ship as her own. Pyrrha was considered a swiftly rising star among the Starship Captains in Remnant, and had taken this job for the purpose of furthering her career and at the same time distancing herself from the constant nagging and job offers back in the core sectors. As Pyrrha neared the planet, she called in her Co-Pilot, an older and more experienced man that the STC had insisted travel with them as insurance against possible pilot errors due to youth. No words were passed between the two pilots, each knowing their role perfectly: as per basic training, there must always be a Pilot and Co-Pilot for a ship carrying over 50 people to land upon a planet lacking any known space ports.

Ren plugged himself into the ships mainframe, doing his routine pre-full-dive checkup. Engines Nominal, Hull Integrity Unchanged, Dark Matter Core Output Unchanged, Dark Matter Drive Nominal, Hyperspace Sensor detected no aberrations or risks. Everything important seemed to be in order. Checking the signal they were seeking, Ren noticed that it seemed to be a barebones signal – almost ramshackle, as if it was created using scrap. Well, considering the _Glenn_ had gone missing 12 years prior to this, expecting the signal to come from a fully functioning _Beacon_ was a fools game at best. Seeing nothing wrong with the situation, Ren agreed with Pyrrha's choice to change course and head to 4546B. At the very least they could enter low orbit and send a lander down to evacuate the survivor(s). Ren hummed inside his head, the act sending a small buzz through the entire ship as speakers released it over the intercoms.

"Hello _Beacon_ Crew and Passengers! We'll be making a minor detour on account of an emergency distress signal from a fellow starship, the _Glenn_. We apologize for the delay in reaching our destination, but as per Galactic Code, we are legally bound to respond to any confirmed and non-suspicious distress signals. We anticipate this delay only holding us back for a few days at most, probably on 10-12 hours. Remember that the café and recreational areas are always open to crew and passengers, and please do be patient. We will work to make this as quick and efficient as possible. Thank you for riding the _Beacon_!"

* * *

In the Engineering Bay, there was a collective groan as everyone heard the announcement. The delay was understandable, but even so, nobody wants to have the greatest addition to their resume they'll ever likely get to be delayed. The Head of Engineering, Sky Lark, sighed and decided to give his division some time off since they'd likely be in charge of the rescue OP with Security. As the majority of the engineers headed off to their various rooms to change into gear more suited for some fun and drinks, a certain dark-haired engineer remained behind. Sky raised an eyebrow, not even surprised that the little protégé would stay behind. For her, the best entertainment was a new engineering problem she could solve. Made her one of his best workers, but also made her a bit of a loner. Ah well, to each their own. Sky headed off to his own quarters, already imagining the possible ways leaving her alone could go horrible wrong… or even worse, horribly right.

Not even noticing her boss leave, Ruby Rose continued on her pet project to improve the energy efficiency of the Phase Gate they planned to build. Slight modification to the transfer system, a tiny bump in the core output, and an minor alteration to the generator system should, in theory, do the trick…

The Head of Security was not looking forward to the future. This little detour would force his crew to work double time to get a rescue crew on the planet, find the survivors, and then get them back off-world in as little time as possible. Damned Code, always making life a bit more difficult for his poor soldiers and mercenaries. Sheesh. Well, so long as the pay kept coming everything would work out in the end. Looking out, Cardin Winchester hummed to himself before deciding to run a skeleton crew until the _Beacon_ got into orbit of 456B. His crew would need all the rest they could get, considering the obscene amount of effort would go into rescuing a few survivors. He did notice that the signal came from a ship missing for 12 years, with the last known reports declaring that it would be exploring planets in the Alorian Sector for high-resource planets. Hell, maybe they'd found one and screwed up the landing process – wouldn't be the first time some hotshot pilot fucked up like that. Best case scenario, they snagged everyone in a good 8 hours and were gone in 10 with a hefty finders bonus on the planet. Worst case scenario, the idiots were a little scattered and they needed to spend 10 or 12 hours finding them. Either way, more money in the bank is never a bad thing.

He'd need to make sure to keep the blasted Valkyrie as far away from this operation as possible though. How she could manage to cause so much damage at her age is beyond him, but Cardin knew damn well that he didn't want this rescue ending with something exploding violently again.

* * *

"How dare they delay this project?! Do they ANY idea how much is riding on the new Phase Gate? How much this could hurt my reputation if we can't get the project done in time? Of course not, these idiot pilots are too busy saving some hicks who managed to get themselves in trouble and now need the Schnee's to bail them out!"

Yang sighed as her boss, charge, and signer-of-her-paycheck continued to rant and rage about what was going to be at most a 12-16-hour delay in a project expected to take the better part of three years to complete. Of course, this was HER boss, the Schnee Heiress herself, so it only made sense that even the slightest imperfection was going to be a big deal with her. Yang shook her head and focused on what mattered: calming the arrogant bitch down before she tried to break into the Command Center and got them all killed by yelling at the pilots.

"-should be telling them t-"

"Ok, Ma'am, with all due respect, you need to calm down. As the Pilot said, this is a legally mandated detour, which no one, especially not members of your family, can hold against you."

"You clearly don't know them like I do…"

"Doesn't really matter, Ma'am. We've heard the distress signal, nothing we can do but answer it or face serious charges – even murder charges, if the survivors die and we didn't respond. That would do far more damage to the Project than a 12-hour delay."

"Be honest with me, do you think this will only take 12 hours?"

"Well… we can always hope!"

Yang sighed again as her charge gave her a death glare.

"I'm going to take a shower. You stay here and make sure nothing goes wrong while I do."

"Yes Ma'am."

* * *

Blake was determined to be part of the drop crew for this rescue operation. Granted, she really had no business being there, but as a biologist she wanted to at least take SOME samples from 456B, even if it was only plant and fungal samples – things that can't run away, as she called them. An entire planet, uncharted and barely noticed, with a unique biosphere and a breathable atmosphere. Ah, that was a treasure trove of biological data to look over – new species to discover and name, a chance to make her mark – however small – on the universe for however long her civilization survived to tell the tale of their people. A woman would live a century or two, but knowledge? That would outlast her by millennia.

Heading over towards a terminal in the Biolab Bay, Blake started to set up her request in such a way as to ensure she would be accepted.

"Make note of my medical abilities, don't mention that they're fairly limited… point out that there could be injured or ill survivors, and that we have no way of knowing if they could be contagious… Comment that if we can find some good food plants or collect samples and find one later, we could use less cargo space on food from Degasi…"

Blake went about muttering her way through the request form, an eager frown forming on her face as she imagined the amazing things this planet could hold for her. She didn't notice the soft chuckle from her friend Russel, but she did notice when he poked a q-tip in her cat ear, causing it to suddenly fold and her to involuntarily tilt over the side and away from him with a yelp.

"I know that frown. That's you 'I can't wait to do something reckless and a little stupid' frown! What'cha planning, Blake?"

"Oh hey Russel. Just trying to get down on the planet as part of the Rescue OP so I can snag some samples while I'm there. Wanna join me?"

"Tempting, very tempting, but I have a bad feeling about this whole ordeal to be honest. The sooner we're done with it the better, and the farther from this planet we are, the less worried I'll be."

"Bah, you're just paranoid. It's not like there'll be some kind of plague on the planet, cross-species diseases are too rare and we aren't even natives. We'll be fiiiiiiiine."

* * *

Jaune glanced at his room mate for the trip. Brown hair, worried eyes, a simple enough space suit. This guy definitely wasn't trying to stand out. Jaune had learned that Dove was rather timid in all things, though he'd managed to get the man to chat occasionally, which was nice. Jaune decided to try it again, now that they had some extra time before the next stop.

"Wanna go down to the bar and grab a beer? Maybe see what we can learn about this planet we're detouring to?"

"I-I-I guess…"

"It's fine if you don't want to, we can just stay here instead."

"N-no, I'll go. Just… nervous. I have a really b-bad feeling about this whole situation is all. What if we crash too?"

"Mt fiancée is the Captain, so I can assure you we won't be crashing. Pyrrha knows what she's doing."

"Well, if you say so…"

* * *

Pyrrha had no idea what she was doing. One minute the _Beacon_ is settling into a low-planet orbit to scan for the signal source, the next the central engine is gone, and all systems are exploding – some of them literally! What the hell had even happened?! The Captain was rapidly being updated by the ships systems, and knew that they weren't going to be able to escape the planet's gravity well – this ship was going down, hard. With a scowl both internal and external, Pyrrha made a split-second choice to remain piloting the vessel to the safest possible landing, rather than bail and use one of the lifepods. An order to her co-pilot found her with an unexpected support, as Ren refused to leave. They both had people they needed to make sure would survive, even at their own risk. As the massive ship plummeted from the sky, trailing bits and pieces of itself and leaving massive shockwaves in the air, all of its systems were in full overdrive. Directional rockets and gravity manipulators were in full use, the gyros were doing their best to keep it on course, and the destination had been selected: the only dry land for hundreds of miles in every direction, a volcanic island in the heart of a massive caldera. Pyrrha could only watch from within the systems as two dozen escape pods launched down towards the area around the impending crash site.

Ren activated the Comms one last time before impact. He had something important to say.

"Everyone, Brace for Impact!"

The _Beacon_ collided with the planet at a shallow angle, the lifepods firing out right up until the impact. The first impact tore out the bottom hull of the vessel, but dispersed a lot of its forward and downward momentum, allowing it to skip up once before final impact left a trail of destruction across the large volcanic island it had targeted. As the last of the lifepods that had been able to launch before the impact destroyed the launch systems landed across the region, the massive ship tilted off the shattered and sunken remains of the island it had destroyed, a massive wave pulsing outward and alerting every life form in the area as to the ships arrival.

* * *

 **AN: Hello everyone! I'm gonna see where this one goes. Much like RWBY: New Remnant, this is a RWBY/Game Crossover - this time with SubNautica, which has been in development for 5 years and Early Access for 2 or 3 years now. I've been with this game from way back when they still had the Grand Reef Biome as a bunch of giant basic spikes into the sky. Ah, how far they've come from that ancient concept! It's been a joy keeping up with them, but now that the game has been released officially and I'm doing my first official play through, I've decided to begin this fanfic.**

 **The early plot movement for this will probably (probably) be rather slow, as I'll need to follow a number of different people as they start their survival run of 456B and try not to get eaten by something bigger than them in the process. Hope I can live up to the glory of SubNautica and RWBY, but even if I don't it'll be a good read I hope. Certain events are already set in stone, others haven't been decided yet. We'll see how it all goes though.**

 **I'll be updating somewhat sporadically, as the inspiration and will to write finds me really. I've tried writing when I have no will to do so, and ended up basically re-writing New Remnant from Ch2 onward as a result. To avoid that here, I'll write as I have the urge to, not as I demand of myself.**

 **See ya'll next time everyone!**

 **~TRP**


	2. Waking Up

***Insert SubNautica Game Music Here***

* * *

"Urg… what hap- THE CRASH!"

Weiss bolted upright and promptly knocked herself into a dazed state as her head connected with one of the life pod restraining seats. Yang glanced her way, snickering to herself. ' _Sleeping beauty rises loud, like always. Would it kill her to be quiet for once in her life?_ ' Yang could only shake her head at that, moving over next to her charge.

"Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uh… four?"

"Two, but close enough. We have a problem, t-"

"OF COURSE HAVE A SODDING PROBLEM! We crashed! Why the hell did we crash?!"

"Uh. Actua-"

"What are you on about? Help me out of this seat! I need to contact the captain and give her a piece of my mind!"

"Ma'am…"

"And get me a water once I'm free, I need a-"

"MA'AM! Be quiet. I have no idea what's outside the life pod right now, but I don't want it to pay attention to us. So lets stay quiet if we can, okay? Thanks. Give me a sec and I'll start helping you."

Yang then proceeded to put her ear onto the side of the life pod, trying to gauge the possible threat levels of anything outside. She'd survived on Hubrito 7, she's damn well gonna survive on a planet with more numbers than letters in the name. She definitely had this.

"So…"

Except for that. That annoyance she was being paid to protect would be the death of her, either by actually getting her killed or by driving her to suicide. At least on the ship she could ignore the Schnee in favor of, well, literally anyone else… but here, they were alone. Hopefully. It would be bad if something else was listening in.

"Ms. Schnee, please do me a universe of favors and make absolutely no noise until I say otherwise. Thank you."

Yang could hear a number of different sounds as she listened in to the best of her ability. Chittering noises, source unknown; a deep rumbling noise, source unknown but large; loud scraping and rustling noises getting closer- and now further again; something tapping on the metal- oh wait that was the Schnee. Yang sighed, not being able to determine anything except that there was a lot of life in the water outside. Well, that and the fact that they were underwater, but the life pod was still functional enough to notify them that they were about 80 meters underwater.

"Ms. Schnee, if you would be so very kind as to stop tapping…"

"You're just sitting there leaning on the side of the pod with your eyes closed, why aren't you helping me?! Do you have any-"

"I'm trying to listen in on whatever's outside the pod, since we're currently 80 meters below sea level on an alien planet with unknown life forms. The tapping isn't going to help, and it could draw something dangerous our way. So stop it."

"Oh…"

In the blessed silence that followed, Yang leaned against the wall again, willing herself to focus only on sound. She was rewarded with more noise – water swishing something plant-like, sand shifting constantly, and something loud and aggressive moving past them. She knew it was aggressive because nothing harmless made snapping noises like that, and the accompanying squeaks as something smaller got nabbed (probably) did not make the creature seem any less dangerous.

"Okay. I'm gonna get you out of your seat now, but we can't leave the pod just yet. We're gonna need to do a basic suit check first, then see what we can do about increasing our speed. I definitely heard something predatory out there, and I do not want to find out the hard way that we fit in its mouth."

"Th-th-that seems re-reasonable… th-thanks…"

"Good, you're afraid. Fear can do wonders for survival rates. Now let me get you outta there… go limp please."

* * *

Ruby glanced at her boss again. He was still very much unconscious from the force of their landing. She sighed, and went back to work. She had two seaglides to make before the slow leak in her pod drowned them both. Being some 400 meters below sea level, Life pod 18 was just barely within the pressure specs for its design. The sheer depth involved was something that Ruby knew damn well she couldn't swim on her own, she'd drown pretty much instantly in that case. Hence the custom seaglides designed to get her and Boss Sky up to the surface before they ran out of air. Their suits would handle the pressure differences, being designed to casually make up for sudden changes from 1a to 0a during space travel and walks. Ruby sighed again, something she seemed to be doing more often now, and allowed her mind to continue drifting. Building the seaglides wasn't even an issue for her – she could do this in her sleep – so she had the brainpower to spare.

' _I wonder what went so horribly wrong that the ship actually crashed? We weren't even supposed to land! Hell, the_ Beacon _didn't even have planetary landing capacity, being designed for exclusively space travel. The only part of the ship that wouldn't become part of the Phase Gate were the engines, which would be scrapped entirely and used as backup materials for local craft and emergency situations. Everything else was built to be converted with some effort. Alterra would then bring them back home through the new Phase Gate. At least, that was the general id-_ ' Ruby's thoughts were suddenly and violently interrupted as the entire life pod suddenly got suckered by a powerful EMP of unknown source and cause.

It did shut out the lights in the life pod, waking up her boss and leaving them both in complete darkness – until Ruby activated the headlamp she had built into her skull, of course. ' _Self-Enhancing really is the best thing ever, truly._ ' Ruby thought as she turned towards Sky.

"Good morning Boss. I'm almost done your seaglide. Guess why we need them!"

* * *

"We don't need to leave the life pod… we could just stay here until someone comes to save us."

Dove frowned at the cat next to him. ' _Aren't I supposed to be the coward here?_ ' This little debate had been going on for the past five minutes, ever since she'd woken up from her little, pardon his pun, cat nap. Dove had been forced to put out a fire, only barely waking up in time to avoid asphyxiating on the smoke, and then managed to get the pod fixed using his dismal repair skills. Honestly, his PDA did more to help with repairing the pod than anything else, and it was a stroke of luck that there had been a repair tool in the lockbox to begin with. Their pod, at least, had landed right-side up and floatation devices deployed – he doubted everyone had been that lucky. His podmate, who had introduced herself as Blake, was a cat faunus and clearly disliked water… though if that was the result of her cat-add-ons or some childhood trauma, Dove didn't know.

"In fact, we could just never, ever go any closer to the water than we currently are!"

"Blake, I want to explore a probably dangerous ocean world just as much as you do, but in the end we need food, we need water, and we need to find out what's happening outside the life pod."

"But!"

"No buts allowed. You can go through the top hatch if you want, I'm going through the bottom hatch because I'm scared of heights."

"Wait, you consider that a height?"

"Shut up. The water can't be that bad."

* * *

"So, it's that bad huh?"

"Yep!"

"Do you, uh… do you have any ideas?"

"Not a single one, sorry!"

"Ah… okay then… uh…"

Jaune sighed. Stranded on an alien planet, separated from his fiancée, and stuck with this Nora woman who seemed to be the most unconventional security guard he'd ever met. This wasn't the worst part of course – neither was the upside down life pod. No, the worst part, the thing that made this worse even than his coverage of the revolution on Blianci 11, that was the big fuck off eel-monster trying to eat them through the pod. His podmate had slipped out the bottom hatch, taken one look at the beast, and promptly climbed right back in with an expression that almost literally said "why me?". And now Jaune was stuck with her in the pod. The only good news, ha what a joke, was that it couldn't seem to be able to get a solid grip on the pod itself.

Now if only it would just fuck off already and leave them alone, his day would be complete.

"Hey Nora, can you reach the supply cache up there?"

"Yeppers!"

"Thanks… what's i-?"

The question became moot as Nora fell from her impromptu climb and ended up dumping the entire cache down on him. A few bruises and a mild concussion later, Jaune was ready to come up with one of his patented "how did this even work?!" plans.

"Oh! Give me the extinguisher!"

"I need the extinguisher!"

The two blinked, and looked at each other awkwardly for a moment.

"You go first, Jaune. You're the famous reporter, after all!"

"We can attach this soundpiece to the fire extinguisher using a bit of wire to hold it in place, lock the extinguisher so it's venting, and then aim it away from us – that should distract the monster long enough for us to escape."

"That's… SO MUCH BETTER THAN MY IDEA YOU'RE AWESOME! But not as awesome as Ren. He's like, pure awesome."

"Who's Ren? And what was your idea?"

"Ren's my husband, and I was gonna hit it with the extinguisher until it went away."

Jaune paused, regarding Nora with an open mouth. ' _This Ren must have the patience of a saint. Or be insane. 50/50._ '

* * *

Ren woke with a slight jolt and the feeling that Nora had almost done something incredibly stupid. He automatically turned to scold her, only to suddenly remember what had happened – and that his wife was probably dead, if the 'Failed Deployment' numbers for the life pods was anything to go by. ' _How did only 7% of the life pods survive?! This is a brand new ship just out of debugging! There should have been at least an 80% survival rate on those pods! How? How?! HOW!?_ ' Ren, having thoroughly begun panicking over how bad this was, forced himself to calm down. It was a talent he'd mastered living with Nora for twelve years. Taking stock of his situation, he took pleasure in knowing that his Captain had also survived the crash – heaven knew he'd need what little joy he could get at this point. Noting that she was still out from the impact, Ren turned his attention to the _Beacon_ itself.

' _Engines are intact – strange considering we crash landed. Cargo bay… is a total loss, I'm sure bits and pieces of our cargo we were shipping to Degasi is now officially scattered across half the planet. Docking Bays are better – 40% loss for the seamoth, 20% for PRAWNs, 60% for Cyclops, 85% for Starwolves, 80% for PlanLanders, and 75% loss on the Voidwalkers… we have no functioning space travel and probably not even the materials to repair or replace them. Great, we are truly stuck here. I wonder if this is what happened to the_ Signal _. Speaking of what happened… what in Dust happened?! We weren't even supposed to land!_ '

Ren was about to begin investigating when his musings and checks were suddenly and horrifyingly interrupted by a shriek that ended with a coughing and gasping sound. Ren snapped up, realized the continued coughing and wheezing was coming from his Captain, and swiftly unplugged himself from the _Beacon_. Rushing over to her plugset, Ren activated the manual override to get her out where he could preform some level of medical services for her. All pilots needed to know at least basic first aid for situations like this – or at least, ones where things go wrong. As the command cylinder discharged his Captain, however, Ren realized it was not to be.

Pyrrha's limp and broken body more fell out of the command cylinder and onto the ground before Ren could catch her. Even if he had, it probably wouldn't have done much good. It looked like her antigrav system had failed to keep her stable in the cylinder, unlike his which had done so. Why Ren didn't know, but what he did know was that a medkit wasn't going to help Pyrrha at all. She was gasping and wheezing for breath, blood running down from the corners of her mouth and stains across her outfit, giving it a horrible off-red color. Ren could see where bones were broken – both arms and both legs seemed to be more broken than not, with one of the legs having visible shards of bone stabbing out of her shin and thigh. Her arm, on the same side, was held on by ruined strips of muscle and flesh, the shoulder dislocated so thoroughly that the arm would never work again. Pyrrha's ribs were broken, her chest caving into her body sickeningly. She could only open one eye, the other crushed into oblivion by the same impact that had destroyed her body.

"Captain Pyrrha! My gods…"

Pyrrha hacked up another spill of blood, somehow having more to spare even though Ren could see the spilled blood draining from the bottom of the command cylinder.

"S… shhh…. Shhhhhi…"

"Pyrrha don't try to talk, that'll make it worse! I- I can try something. I know! I can get you i-"

Pyrrha couldn't talk, so she used her personal coms instead.

 **"Ren, I need to know if we succeeded. Did we land on that island like we wanted? How many life pods survived? Can we get rescue or are we stuck here?"**

"We succeeded – we landed on the island, or close enough not to matter. T-there were losses with the life pods, but many of them survived the impromptu landing. We… rescue isn't coming any time soon, but enough of the ship is intact to ensure the survival of our passengers."

 **"Good. Ren… it hurts. It hurts so much. And… and I know I can't make it. I don't even …. The extend of .. injuries … I can't even ….. anymore. I'm … fast. But it ….. Can … end it? Please?"**

Ren shuddered. He did not want to agree to this, not even if it was an order from his captain. But he knew, and she knew, full well that there was nothing he could do to help her. Pyrrha Nikos would not be surviving this crash. All that could be done now would be to give her a quick and painless death… or at least, a quick and less painful death. Ren closed his eyes, not wanting to accept reality, but even as he did he could feel her broken body struggling to survive when it couldn't. Ren nodded, and gently placed Pyrrha into the command cylinder.

"This… this'll probably hurt a bit."

 **"If… if you … my … Jaune… tell … that I …. him. Thank … Goodbye."**

Ren nodded, and carefully put the survival knife to his Captains throat. One swift movement later, and Ren watched, refusing to look away, as one of the most famous people in the galaxy died, blood running down her front as the spark in her eyes flickered and died, leaving her gazing at something only the dead could ever see.

* * *

 **AN: Am I a bad person? Almost definitely. But comon' people, this is SubNautica and RWBY - you can't have expected a story of fluffy exploration and mushy love, could you? After all, spoiler inbound by the way, the player is the only survivor of the Aurora crash in the game, so we're already ahead here in that our favorite functional life pod has two people instead of one. Don't worry, this isn't going to be a snuff fiction - but the warning that characters are mortal is there for a reason. If you can't handle a little gore and death, stop reading this story. I'm not aiming for gorn levels of violence, but 4546B is not a peaceful or friendly planet, so don't expect everything to be bloodless or peaceful.**

 **Anyway, this chapter is going to be par-the-course until our survivors either start dying or start gathering together. Once everyone is in the same general area we'll have more raw plot happening rather than shards of plot from each of the main characters.**

 **Raptorex, thanks for the review mate! I'm hoping to live up to both RWBY and SubNautica, but I'm also hoping more crossover fics spawn out besides my own. You have a nice day too!**

 **Mattianaboone99, I hope I can be worth the follow :)**

 **Dunno when the next update will be, but I'll see you all again then!**

 **~TRP**


	3. RUN AWAY!

**This chapter brought to you by Monty Python & Mood Whiplash**

* * *

' _This is a really, really bad idea…_ ' Sky thought for what felt like the dozenth time in the last few minutes. Ruby insisted that the amped up seaglides she'd built were '99% certain' to get them to the surface before they suffocated without oxygen, but had also made the helpful note that one or both of them may be unconscious by the time they reached it. In her words…

"We'll either live, barely, or die, barely. Probably live."

"You've said that twice now, and I'm still not confident on it."

"Eh, you'll live. Probably."

"See, if I didn't know you don't understand snark, I'd assume you were using it right now."

Ruby tilted her head at him with that quizzical look she gave people whenever she didn't quite get what they were trying to say, shrugged, and went back to top hatch. The plan was simple: they'd both open their respective hatches together, and as soon as the incoming water slowed enough for them to escape the sideways pod they'd use their seaglides to rocket up towards the surface. The environment suits would keep them safe enough from the pressure differences, but they only had what oxygen they could hold in their lungs. This would be a race against their own ability to hold their breath. Luckily, Ruby knew what she was doing! 99% chance of success, .5% chance of catastrophic seaglide failure, .3% chance of drowning at the surface, and .2% chance of being too slow. Ruby was good at her job.

"You ready?"

"No, not really…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"So… when are you going to start counting down?"

"You said you weren't ready."

"Oh for fu- Ruby, I'm ready. Start counting down please."

"Oh, okay! Three! Two! One!"

Ruby and Sky opened their hatches at the same time, or as close as could be, and hauled themselves out as quickly as possible. Both of them activated their respective seaglides at the same time and began rushing towards the surface. Ruby, being Ruby, took notice of the environment they were in.

' _This is easily the most interesting environment I've ever been in. Then again, I've lived on a sterile shipyard my entire life so I guess they all are, but still. White structures with smaller extensions – thorns? – branching off along their length. What looked like a giant arm-monster-thing coated in lightning(?) and surrounded by darkness. More thin white structures, with thorny tips and reddish globs of something. And a giant clear tube-'_

 **"RWAAAAAAAAWWWW!"**

' _Well fuck me._ ' Sky and Ruby had the exact same thought at the exact same time as the moving atrocity-to-the-concept-of-silence lurched forward at them. Barely missing them due to the high speed of their seaglides, the monster collided with a large column of black stone, the wide wing-like head crashing against it and snapping to the side. Seemingly disoriented and appearing to not fully understand the concept of up, the monster swung its head side to side as it swam around below them. Lucky for the duo, nothing else in this part of the ocean seemed immediately hostile to them, and they soon reached the surface of the ocean.

"This world officially sucks. Like seriously. I'm going to have nightmares about that for the rest of my goddamn life."

"What even was that?"

"Hell if I know, I'm not a biologist! Looked like some kind of giant glass eel with a hammerhead attached to the front."

"…"

"…?"

"What's an eel?"

* * *

The giant fuck-off eel-monster fell for the soundpiece extinguisher completely and fully. Pity the bloody monster managed to eat it and come back to the pod so quickly that it may as well have not mattered. Swimming for their lives in an environment clearly designed by a sadistic god with a grudge against humans in particular, Jaune and Nora weren't dead. Well, not yet at least. There was still plenty of time for them to be eaten, as every instinct in Jaune's entire body had been casually screaming at him constantly for the past several seconds. As for Nora… well…

"Hya! Kyo! Bwu!"

' _This is so much fuuuuuuun!_ ' Nora all but squeed as she, latched on to one of the giant mandibles, continued to beat the eel-monsters face with a chunk of twisted titanium from the _Beacon_. Nothing got the blood pumping like fighting giant seamonsters on an alien planet with some guy who would almost definitely write up an incredibly sensational version of the story later on. She could see it now: "Nora, the Leviathan Slayer!" They'd be making holos of her for centuries! That or she'd get eaten and nobody would ever know, but hey, don't be a downer!

 **"RWUUUUUUUUR!"**

The massive beast flinched back, two eyes on the side of it's head suddenly blinded, as Nora managed to get a strike in that Jaune would forever say was luck and she would forever say was completely intentional, usually while not making eye contact. The monster apparently decided 'screw this' and turned, swimming back towards the _Beacon_ , leaving Jaune behind as Nora waited a moment before letting go.

"That was so cool."

Jaune could only whimper pathetically as he contemplated the pros and cons of being eaten compared to going insane.

* * *

Dove had many, many regrets. He regretted not visiting his mother more often. He regretted being such a coward. He regretted boarding the _Beacon_. But right now, Dove was regretting above all else ever convincing Blake to leave the life pod. ' _Why? Why am I the one stuck with the single most overenthusiastic biologist in the galaxy? It couldn't have been someone like Jaune, calm and level headed, noooo, it had to be an alienophile!_ '

"Oh! Look at this fish! It has a hole in it's tail! Oh I cannot wait to find out more! What does the hole do? Why is the fish colored that way? Does it taste good or will it poison me? Maybe it tastes good enough to be worth poison? Who knows!? I want to!"

"Blake…"

"And look at this! All those colors! What kind of creature even is it? It moved like a sea slug of some sort, but faster!"

"Blake…?"

"And this one squeaks. Why does it squeak? I need to know! Come back little squeaker!"

Blake swam towards a rather large cave entrance, going after the strange blue fish-like creature. Dove, not liking the look of the cave or the idea of getting lost, hung back. This decision would likely save both their lives, as Blake and Dove suddenly heard an almost catlike snarling sound that charged towards them from inside the cave. Blake started backpeddling rapidly, trying to figure out what the noise was, at the same time as several of the larger creatures in the general area backed off at top speed. A blur of red and white rocketed out of the cavern, collided with Blake's chest, and exploded.

Dove shrieked in a manner not unlike a small child and backpedaled himself further from the cavern in terror of more of those… things coming to get him. He almost left Blake behind, almost, but then he saw her unconscious as she sank to the sea floor. She hit the sandy bottom on her side, rolled onto her back, and revealed that the damage seemed to be less than had been expected – she wasn't bleeding, but her chest looked almost as if it had been caved inward a little by the force of the explosion. Her swim mask was shattered, bits of plastic stabbed into her cheeks and face as she bled a little from it all. Even as Dove watched, a few stray bubbles of air left her open mouth.

Dove rushed forward, praying that whatever had happened wouldn't happen again, and grabbed the unconscious Blake. As he began to swim away from the cave with her, Dove heard another catlike snarl and pissed himself. But he couldn't find it in himself to regret trying to save the biologist he was dragging by the arm, strangely, even if it was going to kill him. The snarl grew louder, Dove swam harder, and then the explosion followed… far enough away for Dove to only get hit by a mild pressure wave that didn't do any damage due to his suit. Dove didn't slow down until he reached the life pod, and dragged himself and Blake into it.

"She was right. We shouldn't have gone into the water."

* * *

Weiss was right, she should have hired that Cinder person rather than this blonde bimbo. But she just had to take that one piece of advice from her idiot brother. Hmph. Whitely had probably been distracted by the blonde's insultingly huge tits. That Cinder woman hadn't been nearly as busty, but she'd seemed far more experienced and even came with her own subordinates. Then again, the life pods did only fit two… maybe she should have taken her fathers advice and hired that Taurus fella. He seemed to know what he was doing. It was all too late now! The bloody ship had crashed, and here she, **Weiss freakin' Schnee** , was: trapped in a small life pod far below the surface of an alien planet with the single worst motivational speaker in the history of the universe!

"… and you'll be fine, Ma'am."

"Right…"

"Ma'am, I'm going to ask you to repeat what I just told you… please…"

"That I need to orient myself using the sunlight to reach the surface, and then just swim at top speed. So long as I do that and don't get eaten, I'll be fine… right?"

"Yep! Nice to know you were paying attention."

' _This has got to be the worst possible plan of all time._ '

* * *

Nora sneezed loudly as she lay on her back at the surface, resting after the earlier fight.

* * *

"So… what are we waiting for?"

"Well, I'm trying to wait until I hear enough noise to think that any major predators are gone. When I say go, go!"

Yang rushed over to the ladder, hopped on it, and exited the life pod. Weiss blinked, looked around dumbly, realized what had just happened, and rushed for the exit. She immediately regretted her decision as she found herself staring at what appeared to be some kind of cross between a centipede, a shark, and something that had far too many teeth. That wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been headed directly for her face and significantly larger than she was. Weiss shrieked as she launched herself up towards the surface, following the brightest light like her bodyguard had told her to do. Swimming as fast as she could (ei, not very), Weiss felt for just a heartbeat that she was safe and could survive. Then, as if solely to laugh at her for believing she stood a chance, she felt some close on her leg and yank her down.

Wiess shrieked again, this time in pain rather than fear, and struggled to escape the countless rows of teeth she felt digging into her leg. The monster fish thing started to swim downward with her in tow when suddenly, her bodyguard was there, combat knife in hand and surprisingly dangerous expression on her face. The knife embedded itself into the monsters eye, one of four, and the beast leg go of Weiss' leg. Her body grabbed her around the waist and kicked upward towards the surface at top speed. About halfway up, Weiss stopped panicking and started swimming for herself, albeit with a lot of pain. Then she heard a sharp sound, and a snap. Glancing below her without changing her direction, Weiss saw something like a red and white tadpole the size of her head.

Naturally, it had far too many teeth and they were rather prominent to boot. Because of course it did, and of course they were. Weiss whimpered, Yang acted, putting herself between Weiss and the giant tadpole in an exchange that left her with a wicked chunk taken out of her forearm. Pushing Weiss up to the surface, Yang pulled a second combat knife and began slashing and stabbing at the toothy tadpole. More were drawn in towards them, and Yang realized it was the blood doing it. Swearing in her head, she finally managed to stab the first one through the eye and out the other with a dose of eerie yellow blood.

Luckily for Yang and Weiss, the toothy tadpoles were more interested in the blood from their own kind than from the alien red blood that had come from these strangely shaped creatures. The toothpoles swarmed their dead kin and started tearing it apart, swiftly loosing interest in the two above as Yang used medkits to swiftly seal up the damaged areas and stop the bleeding. The two reached the surface, and Yang glanced at Weiss. ' _A bit paler than usual, but otherwise okay._ ' Weiss, meanwhile, was staring at Yang with conflicted thoughts. On the one hand, that had been absolutely terrifying and it was technically Yang's fault for not explaining herself… but on the other hand, Yang had just fought multiple toothy seamonsters on behalf of Weiss… She decided not to say anything at all.

* * *

The command center of the _Beacon_ was silent. The Captains cylinder was sealed, the ships captain contained within. The ships copilot was sitting at a table, staring blankly at a nutrient block. Ren had cleaned himself up and switched into a new suit, but still felt sticky and wrong. He had never even seen someone die before, let alone had to kill them himself. This had been nothing but a by-the-books mission! Just enter orbit, check for the source of the distress beacon, then either pull them off-planet or find out they were dead and move on to the main project. Ren could only put his head in his hands as he tried to piece together what had gone wrong and how.

"This is lifepod 5! If anyone is out there, we need medical assistance – my podmate was hit by some kind of exploding native creature, she's in a bad way! If anyone is out there, we need assistance from someone with more medical experience than 'this is what the PDA said to do'! Please help! Our cords are attached."

Ren literally fell off of his chair as the message arrived with a loud ping, bringing him out of his angst. And now he was afraid – not for himself, but for his wife Nora. What if she was the one who had been injured? What if she was dead! No, he had to assume she was alive, and he needed to find a way out of the _Beacon_. Sadly, the easily way out – the elevators and even the stairs – were both destroyed completely. Ren was trapped, his wife was probably in danger even now, and he needed to reach her. Or at least know if she was safe. So he did what he could do: he linked back into the ship from the copilots cylinder and started relaying the message out to all the other lifepods and to every PDA still capable of receiving a ship transmission.

While Ren was doing this using the emergency override codes to bypass most of the red tape, he could feel a strange entity watching him. Listening to his actions. Ren would never be able to describe it to another, but if anything, it felt like his grandmother watching him explain how he linked into the ship systems and piloted – unable to understand by happy to listen to his voice.

* * *

 **A/N: Bit smaller than normal, but we get our first real view of Planet 4546B and all it's... truly lovable inhabitants. Truly, no planet is as kind and forgiving and generous as Planet 4546B! Nope. None.**

 **...**

 **...**

 **Okay but seriously, this chapter is a bit smaller than most because it has more action than most. Next chapter will have less action (but will still have some) and will start to see our survivors gathering together. Some will reach safety sooner than others, for obvious reasons. Expect the next chapter to be more word-heavy due to describing the various biomes our characters will need to travel through. Ch5 may also be a travel chapter, depending on how large Ch4 gets. We'll see how it goes. We'll have everyone together by Ch6 and will be on to some serious plot by Ch8 at the latest.**


	4. Race to Lifepod 5

***Epic Subnautica Music Here***

* * *

"This is lifepod 5! If anyone is out there, we need medical assistance – my podmate was hit by some kind of exploding native creature, she's in a bad way! If anyone is out there, we need assistance from someone with more medical experience than 'this is what the PDA said to do'! Please help! Our cords are attached."

Jaune and Nora heard the distress signal at the same time through their PDAs.

"That was Dove! My roommate on the _Beacon_. I'm headed over, you?"

"It's kind of my job to rush to the aid of anyone who needs it. But I don't know much about medicine…"

"I know some first aid for the field. Lets go."

As the two of them oriented themselves in the direction of the distress beacon, they found themselves facing the direction the giant monster had withdrawn towards. The moment of silence and stillness was followed by an unspoken agreement and the two turned towards the left by a decent margin and start swimming. Nothing short of their respective life partners was going to convince them to get anywhere near that beasty again.

As the two of them swam, they stayed near the surface – it was faster that way – and kept their trend leftward until they seemed to enter a new environment. This region was markedly different from where they had found themselves – their starting point had been just a bit behind the _Beacon_ itself, seemingly sucked in its wake as it crashed and then left to drift behind upside down. That region had been devastated, completely and utterly ruined. Sand, chunks of stone, and murky water had been the dominating features of the area. They'd seen in the distance a few large stationary darker blotches, but hadn't bothered to investigate them.

But if the starting point could be called a hellish sandy waste of metal shrapnel and gouged out dirt, this new region could be called downright verdant. The region was dominated by huge terraced pillars covered in deep red grassy seaweed of some sort. Each of the pillars was many dozens of meters tall, punching out of the flat grassy landscape like some sort of ancient Mistralian decorative tower, but with an alien twist. The flatlands in between each pillar were, well, flat. Devoid of much in the way of visible features aside from sand held in place by red seaweed, the flat areas had the occasional little track of sand and torn weeds, probably left by some sort of large herbivore feeding upon the plant life. Speaking of life, the region was filled with distant shoals of fish swimming amongst themselves, all of them strange and exotic colors.

The most unexpected aspect of this region, however, were most definitely the immensely massive creatures swimming slowly near the surface. They were far larger than anything else the two had seen so far, larger by far than the snake-eel-monster that had tried to eat them less than an hour ago. Neither wanted to get close, but there were no safe passages through the region except to go deep underwater – which neither were able to do as a result of damaged swimsuits not handling deep pressures anymore – or swim between the leviathan creatures and hope for the best.

Jaune and Nora carefully swam along the surface of the ocean, hoping to escape the notice of the leviathans. As they swam above them, Jaune took note of what seemed to be small reef systems on their backs. Fish flitted between the corals, weeds, and other such growths that seemed to sprout from great cracks and rends in the armored regions of the creatures. He saw numerous tiny fishes with a pair of huge eyes on each side of the head and a single massive fin forming a half-circle around the fish's main body. A sudden snap sound revealed a giant red and white tadpole that snapped after one of them, scattering the school into several smaller ones that left the tadpole confused and lost for a bit. A strange fish with a single eye on the back of a triangular body swam in a small shoal right near the leviathans back using a thin tail with a tall dorsal fin, looking almost like a shovel or spade. Jaune was just starting to relax when he noticed that Nora was missing.

While Jaune had been observing the creatures on the backs of the leviathan swimmers, Nora had been investing the swimmers themselves. Massive in size, truly immense, but slow and with no visible means of propulsion. The long tentacles (heh, tentacles) seemed to serve no purpose that she could find, though if attacked they could prove more prehensile than they appear. The base of the tentacles (heh) had some sort of strange bulbous glowing areas that, again, Nora could find no purpose for. Swimming underneath the massive creature and hoping there wasn't a mouth hiding here, Nora found to her surprise that the leviathan appeared to be swimming by taking water into a pair water-jets that pulled water into them on the front and expelled it out from the rear. They also seemed to have some sort of filters built into them, leading her to assume they were harmless filter feeders, like whales or narlacs. It was at this moment that Jaune called out her name.

"Nora?! Nora where are you!"

"I'm down here, look at these awesome beasties!"

"Nora, we need to reach Lifepod 5. We can't get distracted yet, only after we've done our best to help them."

"Ugg, fine!"

The two continued on their journey, passing over a thin stretch of what could only be described as a kelp forest, but encountering no further predatory lifeforms and spending no time to study the forest in question. They needed to reach the pod as quickly as possible, having taken such a detour as to avoid their big and hungry friend that had driven them away from their life pod.

Even with the urgency, however, the two were able to appreciate the colorful beauty of the shallows they had found themselves in. White sand covered much of it, with light tan stone creating terraces, columns, and even arches. Brilliantly colored plants and corals were everywhere, with green seaweed spreading across patches of sand and small reefs covering patches of rock. Exotic fish darted in and out of giant tubes with pearlescent interiors and green mottled exteriors, fleeing the two interlopers. Brightly colored creatures swam across the sand below them, large black bodies undulating with blue fins along the edges and bright orange and blue highlights. A small herd of rotund green creatures with thick, almost artificial looking faces and a strange glowing green orb attached to their rears swum away from them with a strange laughing sound as several of them expunged glowing orbs from their rears.

Before Nora could investigate, the orbs popped and spread out some green substance, which killed several unlucky blue fish with giant yellow eyes. Armed with the knowledge that even timid fish could kill them, the two swiftly made their way deeper into the shallow reef. Passing a volcanic geyser (and what was up with that?) the two saw the lifepod when they managed to get to the peak of a small wave. They were only a few dozen meters away, in fact, and were able to swiftly get to it and climb in.

* * *

Weiss was afraid of everything, and it was pissing Yang off. Sure, being nearly eaten by something with a mouth larger than your entire body was terrifying, and sure those monstrous toothpole fish were absolutely nightmarish (did they really need that many teeth?) but the simple reality was neither of those creatures were near the duo anymore. The monster that had tried to eat Weiss when she escaped the pod seemed to be sticking to the sea floor, and looked to be built to dig underground and ambush creatures that got too close. The toothpoles were perfectly happy to come to the surface, but due to the rough waves seemed to drive most creatures deeper into the water.

Yang scowled to herself again and looked up nervously. Normally paranoia would be just that, paranoia, but this was an alien planet and Yang didn't want to find out the hard way that there were dangerous predators that hunted from the sky. Especially not if the toothpoles and diggers were anything to go by, since if they were the airborn predators would probably be large enough to swallow them both whole.

"This is lifepod 5!" "

Weiss let out a shriek of paranoid fear as even Yang yelped and did her best impression of startled cat trying to jump out of a swimming pool.

If anyone is out there, we need medical assistance – my podmate was hit by some kind of exploding native creature, she's in a bad way! If anyone is out there, we need assistance from someone with more medical experience than 'this is what the PDA said to do'! Please help! Our cords are attached."

"Shit. Listen ma'am, we gotta respond to that. Not only is there safety in numbers, but an injured civvie is as much my job as keeping you safe. Plus, I have admittedly limited knowledge of emergency field medicine. It comes in handy."

"B-b-but what if-?"

"No buts or whats about it, we've got a job, cords, and a destination in mind. You can either come with me or I can tell your family and insurers that you were tragically eaten by something twice your size after abandoning your own crew to die."

"F-fine! B-but we're going to be careful, r-right?"

"Of course ma'am. My priority is you, so you don't need to worry about being sacrificed to save someone else. Not in this situation at least."

"That… that does not inspire confidence."

"Meh. Not my problem. Lets head ov-"

 **"BROOOOOOOOOOOOOWM"**

"Nope. Nope nope nope. Not that direction anymore."

"Weiss, stop!"

Weiss had heard the great rumble and instantly started swimming away from it without a care in the world for what could be in front of her. Something able to make a noise that loud could NOT be safe for anyone, anywhere, ever. Yang, once again furious with her charge, rushed after her while glancing to the rear and seeing the admittedly massive leviathan-class life form. That said, Yang could tell from a glance that if this thing was a carnivore, it had a very different prey than humans. Something that large, slow, and poorly designed couldn't be a speed predator, if it was a predator at all. But her boss wasn't listening anymore, so Yang had no choice but to power after the white-haired woman.

"Weiss! Weiss if you don't stop right now so help me I'll use you as bait for the next carnivore!"

That got Weiss' attention, causing her to freeze, whimper, and then suddenly get angry and turn to glare at her 'protection'.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?! Do you even know who's signing your paychecks?!"

"Yes yes, calm down ma'am. I just needed you to stop."

"So you decided to threaten my life?!"

"it worked didn't it? Now hush. The lifepod is that way, and the big leviathans you bolted from don't eat creatures like us. They don't have the right build for it. Trust me, I know that much at least."

"…"

"Anyway, lets head over. We'll stay near the surface and try to avoid anything too aggressive looking or acting, sound good?"

"S-sure."

The two started swimming at the surface, heading towards the lifepod beacon superimposed upon their masks, and began to calm down. Nothing was attacking from the sky, not that Yang could see at least, and nothing seemed to be interested in getting too close to the surface from below either. It was almost peaceful, if not for the constant waves and the effort needed to swim. After about five minutes of this, Yang had enough and swam deeper, ignoring Weiss' squeak of fear as the white-haired woman followed her down. The environment they were now in was green tinted, with massive plants rising around them.

The massive kelp trees rose around them, shadowing the lower regions if not for the brightly glowing collections of what appeared to be seed pods clustered near the base of the main bushy parts of the vines. The bushy parts themselves generally extended between five and fifteen meters in overall height, and were anchored to the sea floor by long thinner extensions that were covered in the patchy remains of old leaves and growths, even having little flowers mixed in. Swimming along with the two survivors were dozens of fish, all of them larger than a human head. Some of the fish seemed timid around the duo, others were clearly more courageous than the rest, coming out of the kelp and the deeps to investigate these strange new creatures.

Weiss seemed surprisingly okay with these creatures, probably because none of them were the same size as she was. Looking around, Yang could see several distinct fish, the most exotic of which looked like a blue lizard with six large rounded legs and no tail. These ones whizzed around through the kelp with grace, speed, and confidence – even if they kept a bit away from the interlopers. Another species, this one colored neon green and vibrant violet, seemed more curious than most, swimming right up towards Weiss. Why they were all so interested in Weiss was beyond Yang's knowledge, maybe she just oozed fear and timidity so much that even the fish could tell? Whatever, point was the Schnee was finally getting a good impression of this planet, for better or for worse.

It was for worse, naturally. Having lowered her guard, Yang didn't notice a small fish sneaking up behind Weiss – but the other fish in the area sure did and began to back away and take evasive measures like swimming more erratically or simply swimming away at speed. That was what clued Yang in, albeit too late to stop what happened next. As Weiss reached out towards the fish with the hoops as it started to back away, there was a sudden cackling sound and then something was attached to Weiss' arm and she was shrieking incoherently and thrashing in an ultimately vain attempt to get it off of her. Several other creatures of the same type were now swimming towards the thrashing woman, to which Yang responded by pulling her last knife and attacking them indiscriminately. Successfully killing most of them, one managed to grab hold of Yangs arm, and bit down. It was to Yangs horror that the bastard fish began to suck out her blood – she swiftly impaled it on the knife and tore it off, before finally rushing over to where Weiss was.

Weiss was still thrashing helplessly as the large sack on the 'head' of the bloodsucking creature began to bloat. As Yang arrived, she took a foot the face and tried to calm Weiss down – to no avail. Forced by Weiss' own thrashing to stay away, Yang could only watch as the bloodsucker continued to feed until full, before letting go and sluggishly meandering off a little. Using her knife to kill the little bastard, Yang turned towards Wiess. The Schnee was holding her slightly bleeding forearm, curled around it while beginning to hyperventilate. Yang rushed over tried to calm her again now that the threat was gone.

"Weiss, it's gone, it's gone, you're safe now. Breath in, brea-"

"Surface… *gasp* Now…"

Yang didn't argue, knowing that at this point there would be no arguing with the woman or reasoning with her either. As they reached the surface, they found that they could, if they strained a little, see their destination. Weiss threw a weak but confidant glare at Yang, and the two swam with no small amount of speed toward their destination. Upon reaching it, Yang waited for Weiss to enter before doing so herself…

* * *

Dove was beyond words. Not only had his desperate cry for help been answered, but it had been answered by no less than four people! They had come in pairs, with the first pair consisting of a bombshell blonde with muscles and experience alongside the white-haired Weiss Schnee – the owner of the _Beacon_ and the head of the Phasegate project herself! Granted, Ms. Schnee seemed utterly useless, but even so, she was rich and powerful, if somewhat injured. The woman, however, was useful, using her limited knowledge of medicine and her formidable experience from years of mercenary work to get Blake's breathing stabilized and strong again.

It was about when Yang had claimed to be unable to do anything more for the injured biologist that the hatch opened again, revealing a woman with orange hair and a wicked grin. She hauled herself up to reveal that she was physically more imposing even than Yang (who had far from insignificant muscles herself). The lifepod was built for two people to use comforitably, and managed four with some difficulty, but with five it became unworkable – he and Nora left the pod, though not before Nora stated her friend had some experience with medicine. Dove was now sitting on top of the pod with Nora, the top hatch open as he listened to his room mate the reporter explain to Yang how he'd managed to put Blake's lungs back the way they were meant to be.

Somehow it was only midday, it had felt like a week had passed since they landed. Stress would do that, Dove supposed, but even so… The Schnee Heiress was sleeping off the stress of the day and Dove honestly felt like joining her. For now, though, Dove was talking to Nora and listening to the tale she had to tell about her trip to his lifepod. Dove di not want to go near the water ever again knowing such monsters existed, but that was a problem for some other time. For now, rest and waiting until everyone was recovered enough to talk meant he didn't need to worry about the water.

* * *

 **Okay so not a huge amount larger, but that's because I decided to split Sky and Ruby's trip to the lifepod off from the rest of them. Yeah, part 1 of Sky & Ruby was literally 1000 words long, and since I'm not going to be able to 6-7 thousand word chapters I'm not even going to grace you with a single one of them. Despite removing them we still stand at over 3k words for this chapter, which is about 500 more than usual. We didn't cover as many biomes as I wanted, because I looked at the Subnautica map and realized that the Crag Fields was too far from the Aurora for Jaune & Nora to have fled there from the leviathan. Ah well, I'm not too upset with the chapter. The ending isn't quite which I wanted, but it's close enough for now. May be edited a bit at a later date when I'm better at writing and can do a better job on it. **

**Now then, I forgot to reply to review last chapter! El Gaspe! Here's some belated replies for the lot of you:**

 **Mattianabbone99 - Glad you enjoyed it, I cackled deviously while writing it myself :) I always find it a bit more fun to write (and read) tragedies and the like, I'm just messed up like that. The native life of Planet 4546B is absolutely nightmarish. Go to the SubNautica wiki some time, check out the comparisons - even 'small' fish like Peepers are literally the size of a persons head. The Sandsharks' dorsal fin is literally as tall as a grown man, it's terrifying. Why is everything so big?! lol**

 **Raptoex (Ch2)- I can make no promises on the Kharaa/Carar (nobody seems to agree on the spelling anymore lol) but at least one person will survive to the end, that I can assure you of. Glad to know that isn't enough to scare you off :D**

 **failed to load - Yeah, keep in mind that this is all still Day 1 for our survivors. The plot won't really begin until Day 2, which should be around Ch6 or 7, depending on how my fingers decide to type up the specific details. As for the planet, well, heh, I gotta say the natives of 4546B could probably give the Grimm a run for their money in terms of threat level and power.**

 **CIPC - I have no intentions of abandoning this (or my other fictions). The only reason there would be delays on this is if I get writers block or don't have internet access. Glad you enjoyed it :D**

 **Guest - Thanks and will do :)**

 **Raptorex (Ch3)- Yeah, Ruby & Sky really got blown away there. Their pod is equitable to the pod that can be found in the Blood Kelp already, but theirs hit the bottom before they escaped. Lucky Ruby can built pretty much anything. **

**And now, to conclude, a scrapped add-on that I was going to include for Yang & Weiss (and the story overall). In the trailer (the teaser trailer) there are two types of avian life: Skyrays and 'Long Rays' the latter of which never made the game itself (not yet at least). I was gonna include them as a predatory species of avian, but dropped it for purposes of sticking to confirmed cannon only. Here's the dropped attack, which was the original reason Yang & Weiss went back down underwater when entering the Kelp Forest:**

* * *

The two started swimming at the surface, heading towards the lifepod beacon superimposed upon their masks, and began to calm down. Nothing was attacking from the sky, not that Yang could see at least, and nothing seemed to be interested in getting too close to the surface from below either. It was almost peaceful, if not for the constant waves and the effort needed to swim. Naturally, that peace was suddenly broken as a large, thin, beak as long as grown mans arm dove into the water, just barely missing Yang as she swam. The monster creature started to head back to the surface itself, having only been able to plunge meter or two down before it stopped. On the way back up, both Weiss and Yang were gifted with a first-hand look at the monster.

The monster was like a snake with a pair of massive, if narrow, wings. The body was pale white in color, thin enough that it probably couldn't be seen from the water unless one was actively looking for it and went from rounded in the front to flattened for about 5/6th of the body. The equally thin wings were each as long as the body itself and were smooth and with thin bones through them – they looked like fish fins, but longer and thinner. The head consisted of a pair of downward facing eyes that began to extend on two short stalks. The stalks themselves protruded from the base of the flying predator's beak, which was about a meter long and had a series of inward-facing spikes forming three rows pointing towards the gullet of the monster. The edges of the beak were thick and heavy looking, as if designed to crush through bone and flesh alike.

Yang didn't give it time to attack them again, instead grabbing Weiss and dropping down deeper into the water, getting them at least six meters below the surface before calming enough to look back up and watch the predatory avian struggle to get airborn again. Shivering as they realized how close each of them had just come to losing a limb, the two women found themselves in what could only be described as a kelp forest. Massive clumps of greenery surrounded them even this close to the surface, and extended downward into the murky deeps of the region they were in. Everything was green and brown with teal interspersed due to the water itself.

* * *

 **I'm not going to add any NEW creatures to the story, but I may make small modifications to the behaviors of existing creatures for reasons of drama, plot, or because I think it's more fitting. If/when I make such changes I'll note it and probably explain my reasoning on the subject.**

 **For now, cya'll next time!**

 **~TRP**


	5. Wandering Journey

**~Epic SubNautica Soundbites~**

* * *

"Okay, now what exactly is a shark?"

"Sharks are a type of aquatic predator originally from Remnant. They possessed a streamlined body with three large fins on the front and a vertical fin on their tail."

"Sound cool. Are they in any way related to the Shark-Class military frigates used by the Mistralian Imperium?"

"Yes, actually. Sharks were among the many species that old Mistral took with them when they left Remnant to the Grimm – no, I don't know what those are either honestly – and migrated to where they now live. The Shark Frigates are designed similarly, though the design doesn't really improve their abilities in space."

"Yeah, ships can be designed pretty much any shape you want in a vacuum. No air means no resistance, so designs are entirely voluntary."

Ruby had been eagerly questioning Sky, a citizen of the Mistralian Imperium, about various animals both on land and below water. This was not the first time that she had gone a bit off-topic when machines or weapons were brought up, but that was to be expected of an engineer. As for Sky, well, unlike Ruby he had grown up on a fully terraformed world and had as such seen plenty of wildlife in his days. From dolphins and sharks to cats, dogs, and wolves, his birth-world had held several different ecosystems. Rellikor was a dry planet with about sixty percent land and forty percent water, with most of the planet being deserts. However, along rivers and oceans and the few lakes it possessed, there were dense jungles and forests. This in turn led to Sky – and most of the people born on Rellikor – to have a basic understand of nature and wildlife. He'd never thought it would come in handy like this though.

"Hey Sky?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

"Is it just me or is that mass of rock floating underwater?"

"What?"

It was indeed a massive floating rock, larger than their life pod had been. It was covered in head sized pink masses that neither Sky nor Ruby felt the urge to touch and was slowly rotating in a current of water that seemed to have raised up from deeper. Ruby decided she was going to be the brave one – again – and went over to the rock.

"Ruby, d-"

Ruby plucked one of the pink masses off the rock with a frown. ' _About head sized, with a clear outer layer and a brighter pink inner layer. The teeth have a few bits of stone stuck in them, so it likely locked into the boulder here using them. Or perhaps it has some other method and eats stone? Not my area of expertise, but I'm gonna bring one with me in case we have a specialist who can tell me more. I wonder if it gets any… bigger… oh wow. That is a very large floating boulder – or is it an entire island but underwater?_ '

"Hey Sky! Look down and to the front-left!"

"What is… okay, that's pretty awesome I admit."

"Oh good I'm not seeing things. Wanna check it out?"

"Uh…"

"Great, me too! Lets go!"

Sky sighed, more than a little exasperated at his fellow survivor and her constantly eager behaviors. ' _Can't really hold it against her though, considering she's never actually been to a living planet before. Can't even imagine living my entire life in a space station, that just seems so utterly dull. I suppose it's different for someone from the Valean Technocracy though. Now I think on it, that Schnee woman really went all out on hiring people – usually the MI and the VT would never get near each other. Guess being a big shot in the STC has its fair share of perks huh…_ ' Lost in thought as he was, Sky didn't really pay attention as he and Ruby travelled deeper down towards the island. As such, he didn't notice the shark-like creatures swimming beneath the island and waiting for small prey fish to reveal themselves as they attempted to feed on plant life above.

Ruby, on the other hand, had very much noticed these creatures. Even with as little knowledge of living things as she had, Ruby did know the 'One True Rule': If it has more teeth than you, it's probably dangerous. As such, Ruby backed off from the island with a pout. ' _Aww. I wanted to see what held it up! Now then, what are these things? Two front fins… horizontal tail… ooooh! Are these dolphins? Or maybe some kind of dolphin-turtle cross? I think Sky said that turtles have armored bodies and these do too. But all those teeth… and they seem kinda violent towards each othe- OH MY QBITS THAT ONE JUST ATE SOMETHING!_ '

"OH MY QBITS THAT ONE JUST ATE SOMETHING!"

Sky jolted out of his minor daydream to hear Ruby's terrified statement. For a few moments he was confused as to what she was talking about, and why it mattered, before realizing that there were very large predators below them and that she had probably never actually seen a living thing eat another living thing before. One of those was a lot more important than the other, and Sky acted swiftly.

"Ruby, sshhh! I don't think they heard you, but keep down. These are clearly predatory – that means they eat smaller creatures – and I have the distinct feeling we'd be on the menu."

A slight whimpering was all Sky got in response to that comment.

"Okay, we just need to move nice and quiet away from them."

Sky started looking around for a safe place to flee to when suddenly, as if for the sole purpose of making his life a little worse, both his and Ruby's PDA's suddenly chirped up with a high-pitched beep.

"This is lifepod 5! If anyone is out there, we need medical assistance – my podmate was hit by some kind of exploding native creature, she's in a bad way! If anyone is out there, we need assistance from someone with more medical experience than 'this is what the PDA said to do'! Please help! Our cords are attached."

"This is XxXxXxX 5! If XxXxXx is out xXxXx, we XxXx XxXxXxX xXxXxXxXxX – xX xXxXxXx! [ **Incoherent Loud Static Mess** ]"

Sky unclenched his eyes. Looked around. Looked back down. Met eyes with at least six of the giant armored shark monsters. Pulled a Ruby and whimpered to himself.

"Ruby we need to go NOW! Follow me!"

Ruby didn't question the orders, and for the first time since they'd left that creepy place with the pale vines, she didn't have anything more to say either. As the two of them fled from the sharks, they heard terrifying hunting shrieks come from behind and below them, only to be taken up by armorsharks all around them – except for one direction, which sat at a ninety-degree angle to the direction they'd come from. The two fled as the sharks formed almost a hunting pack of some sort to chase after them.

* * *

"Sky, Sky we've lost them!"

"Are you sure?"

"Just looked over my shoulder, nothing is chasing us anymore. We're safe, for now."

It was the 'for now' that scared Sky the most. So far it seemed that humans sat on the small end of the size scale for creatures on this planet, which meant that they were far from the top of the food chain. A tragic state for a species not used to being predatorized since they'd left their dreadful homeworld eons ago. Sky was just going to assume anything bigger than him could eat him, and leave it at that for now. Safer that way.

"What do you think that static mess was about?"

"Probably a lifepod needing help, but unable to properly send for it."

"Shouldn't we help them?"

"What we need to do is surface and try to find safety for ourselves. Once we're safe we can worry about helping others."

"If you're sure…"

"I am."

The two surfaced shortly after, facing… ocean. Just, endless ocean. Turning to their right was… more ocean. Full one-eighty… ocean, but with a large fog bank, probably some sort of temperature differential. Continuing clockwise, the _Beacon_ sat about one-third submerged in the water, smoking from countless small tears across mostly the front of the massive vessel, with more smoke pouring out of the engines in the back. Ruby let out an involuntary groan at the sight of such a marvel of engineering brought low – literally – and left to smolder and rust. While they figured they would need to head that way, they still checked further clockwise, and saw yet more ocean. As far as the two of them could see, there was only ocean and the _Beacon_.

"We should head to the _Beacon_."

"Yeah, I agree. The Beacon is probably the only dry land we've got access to."

The two survivors started headed towards the Beacon, staying at sea level to keep an eye on it. This proved rather dangerous when a swarm of small fish with huge heads and a single tail swarmed Sky from below, not able to bite through his reinforced dive suit but more than capable of pulling him downward in the water. This in turn caused both Sky and Ruby to see the truly immense submarine creature before them, a leviathan beast with a literal coral reef on its back. As the beast approached them they suddenly got hit by something being launched at them from the beasts back.

"Okay, new plan, dive dive dive! This thing is slow so lets not let it eat us."

"Already diving Boss!"

The two dove once again, this time going more or less straight down. The small fish soon left them alone, not willing to leave the leviathan behind. The leviathan, however, continued to move in roughly the same direction as the divers, forcing them to speed their dive. The duo also spotted more of the leviathans, including a smaller one that was probably a youngster. Even so, it was larger than a basic two-seater, and could easily eat the two engineers. They continued to dive.

"Sea floor here we come!"

"We can follow the sea floor until we reach shallow water, where leviathans can't follow us due to, well, the shallow water. We may also find dry land if we do that."

"Sounds good, but we need to reach the bottom first, Ruby."

"I know that!"

As they sank, they found themselves in an unexpectedly beautiful environment. Massive spindly pillars of coraline stone rose up around them in chaotic, tangled shapes. Further tangling the shapes were the huge disc-shaped growths spread out of these immense stone trees, deep gray-green on the tops with glowing pink-orange underbellies. Swimming around these giant trees were countless small fish, each more exotic than the last. Ruby spotted a shoal of what looked like boomerangs with glowing tips on their fins. Sky saw fish that had a thin narrow core with two bloated sacks filled with water attached to the central core. Small schools of blue fish with giant eyes and a sharp yellow beak pecked at the giant stone trees while further down near the sea floor was dominated by fish shaped like squat arrows with a single massive eye in the center. More disconcerting were the much larger and vibrantly glowing creatures that looked like some kind of jellyfish, but flattened. They, too, stayed near the sea floor.

Sky gave Ruby a glare and was about to tell her how dumb this idea was when the two of them both received a weak wordless distress ping from a lifepod nearby. With a destination arrayed before them in the form of a weak marker on their dive masks, the two engineers swiftly redirected themselves and rushed off towards the sunken pod. As they travelled the few hundred meters needed to reach the pod, they found that the region they were in seemed to lack any predatory life forms at all – a blessing for them, all things considered.

Reaching the pod, they found to their horror that a huge gash had been torn in the side, letting water rush into the pod. A pair of crushed and broken corpses drifted within the confines of the lifepod, a small swarm of multicolored fish scattering and leaving the torn remains behind as the two engineers slowly approached the pod.

"It seems the pod got caught on that big branch up there, and the ladder tore off with a chunk of pod. That in turn allowed the ocean in. Could have been prevented if the ladder had been built inlaid rather th-"

"Ruby what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to keep my head on straight by seeing the engineering problem, rather than the DEAD FUCKING CORPSES!"

"Yeesh, be quiet! The radios work fine. I'll handle the bodies, can you look around the pod site for anything useful?"

"Sure, fine, whatever."

Sky frowned at Ruby's flippancy, but let it pass. Not everyone can handle a corpse, after all, but Sky had been in the business long enough to see his own fair share of bodies. Shipping accidents, in-space collisions, pirates – the galaxy was full of ways to kill a man. These two poor saps had just gotten one of the quicker ways at least – being crushed by water pressure wasn't a bad way to go. Now to find their PDAs and see if they had anything stashed that could be used…

Ruby, meanwhile, was searching around the lifepod. While there probably wasn't anything useful out here, it was still better than dealing with those… those… those… Ruby changed the subject in her mind through abuse of her augmentation. The forest was peaceful, and there didn't seem to be any major threats here, so she didn't worry herself overmuch about the surrounding wildlife. The jellyfish seemed harmless, though she wasn't about to touch them – even she wasn't that inexperienced. Ruby took pause as she saw what seemed to be a chunk of machinery resting in the sand. It took a mere heartbeat of observation for Ruby to realize this was no mere rubble from the _Beacon_ but was in fact something very different, and very alien…

"Sky! Boss! I found something!"

"I'm busy, give me a moment! Damn corpse won't let go of the repair tool."

Ruby decided to ignore the entire second half of Sky's statement and instead focused back on the strange alien device sprouting from the sand in front of her. It was made out of a strange dark metal the likes of which Ruby had never seen before – if she had, her memory banks would have told her! Detailed with glowing green markings, and with a whirlpool sucking water into one opening and a powerful pulse of water coming out the other half, the purpose of this device seemed to be a vent of some sort. Ruby got closer, wanting to see what she could learn about it, when suddenly one of the blue fish with the big eyes rocketed out of the exit vent, trailing a slight orange oil that swiftly dispersed into the environment. Even as Ruby watched, stunned, a different blue fish swam over to the whirlpool and let itself be sucked into the inhuman vent system.

"What in the name of-"

"AHA! Got it!"

"[ **Playing Message: |** This is lifepod 5! If anyone is out there, we need medical assistance – my podmate was hit by some kind of exploding native creature, she's in a bad way! If anyone is out there, we need assistance from someone with more medical experience than 'this is what the PDA said to do'! Please help! Our cords are attached. **| Message Complete.** ]"

"Survivors! Yes! Ruby, I've got their cords, we gotta go southeast from here!"

"That's great Boss, but I still think you should see this."

"What could possibly be … more… important… By the Brothers! What is that?!"

"I have no idea, but it seems to be some kind of vent mechanism. Also, those blue fish with the big eyes-"

"Peepers. It's a cute name."

"Right… Those Peepers are swimming in and out of the vents. No idea why."

"Well. We can come back later after we rendezvous with the rest of the survivors, the lifepod over there is in our PDAs so we can find it again. Let's get to Lifepod 5."

* * *

The two had been travelling for about forty-five minutes now, and had come upon a kelp forest, as Sky called it. The forest was green, the sea floor of the forest was green, even the water was a murky green coloration. The duo was deep below the surface, having already been chased down to the lower several large toothy creatures that harassed Ruby over her augments. As such, the two were weaving their way between massive columns of stone and looking up at the mottled green canopy above them, keeping an eye out for the Stalkers (and boy had Sky gotten a laugh out of naming them! "Ruby you've got Stalkers!" indeed!) that may close in from above. As such, when Ruby noticed Sky getting distracted by some strange fish with four large wings that constantly change color, she went to snap him out of it.

"Sky, what are you doing?"

"It's so friendly…"

Ruby glanced at the fish. Honestly it looked rather ugly – sideways yellow eyes on little nubs that stuck out a bit from the main body, which was an admittedly nice mix of light blue and soft purple with shiny patches across it. Other than that, though, the fish was ugly – a maggoty body with a horizontal tail and a set of strange indentions along the front where the 'face' would be. In fact, now that Ruby thought a moment, where was… the… MOUTH! Ruby moved herself forward, knocking Sky back and snapping him out of the creatures focus.

"Ruby! Ruby come closer!"

' _No. Do not get any closer to this creature. It is unsafe._ '

"You can trust me, this fish just wants to share its beauty with you. With everyone."

' _No! The fish is dangerous. The head opens, I just figured that out._ '

"And then it shares the beauty, Ruby. It's a kindhearted fish, a friend. You can trust it."

' _No. I cannot. Not after it used YOU to talk to me!_ '

"It's all okay my little genius. Petal. Just come closer…"

' _No… I can't. I'll… I'll get… hurt? Will I get hurt?_ '

"No, of course not. This fish is harmless. It just needs a hug. It's sad that nobody wants to hug it."

' _Oh… well if you say so Mom!_ '

Sky was in the perfect position to watch with shock, confusion, and horror as his subordinate drifted closer to the strange fish, arms spread as if to give it a hug, when it's head **split open** and shot out a set of horrifying toothed lobes that attempted to rip off the front of Ruby's chest and face. The only reason it failed? The reinforced dive suit combined with her augmentations. The dive suit prevented it from getting a good purchase on Ruby's artificially enhanced body while her skeletal structure – made to carry the weight of a full limbpack – was sturdy enough to avoid collapsing or shifting from the impact force.

The fish instantly pulled away, having been unable to cause any significant damage to Ruby and frustrated that it had taken so much effort for no reward. As it darted away, it almost went for Sky, but he lashed out at it with a forearm, convincing it to seek smaller and easier prey elsewhere in the forest. As Sky rushed over to where Ruby was still stunned from the force of the impact, he realized that she had just taken a predatory fish to the chest for him. It was unnerving, as Sky wasn't really the sort to risk his life for others – not even a subordinate.

"It didn't want a hug… Sky it didn't want a hug…"

"It's okay Ruby, it was… it was just a bully. You don't need to worry about it anymore."

"Urg… wait… where did… okay nevermind. Sky my systems are addled, I'll need a few minutes to reboot some of them. Can you keep us moving until then?"

"Sure. Just do what you need to. I'll keep us moving."

' _It's the least I can do after… well, after that!_ '

Sky started swimming a bit higher in the water column, careful not to let any of the Stalkers notice him or Ruby. Even as he did this, he noticed that the beacon for Lifepod 5 was only about three hundred meters away from them. They'd taken a while, but they were reaching the end of their trip. Thank the Brothers for that! And now Ruby was waking up again, another reason to be happy. The two of them swam a bit faster and tried to simultaneously keep a close eye on everything near them and ignore it just in case, but they were not accosted again. Their journey was over, for now.

* * *

 **Another chapter, another encounter with the friendly natives of 4546B. Is there anything on this planet that won't try to eat our brave explorers? Probably not, to be honest. Now, I'm not going to spoil too much for you - when it's time for some serious spoilers I WILL make clear note of such in the pre-chapter notes, so as to ensure that people who still haven't had the joy of SubNautica don't get it ruined for them. That said, everything I've written - including the Alien Vents - are easily found in the early stages of the game while you're still exploring and seeking out sunken life pods. As such, I do not consider it a spoiler at this time.**

 **Moving on from that, this chapter follows Ruby & Sky and ignores the rest of the survivors, but you can keep track of when events happen based on certain in-chapter notes. I'm curious if you guys want to see chapters/events like this again, where one group of people is divided from another and we do a chapter for each group that results from the want feedback on this type of layout for future events...**

 **Finally, I'd like to note that I have not, in fact, added any new life forms to planet 4546B. Those of us who have played SubNautica enough probably know what happened with the leviathan the two encountered. Those who haven't... well, you'll find out eventually :)**

 **And that's the entirety of Day 1 complete! Day 2 begins the Plot and starts either with Chapter 6 or at the end of it, since I'm thinking Ch6 will be focused on the survivors deciding who's in charge of their group now that they've all gathered together. After all, this is a bunch of very different people... can't have them just shrug and get along now can we?**

 **Until next time (probably next Thursday),**

 **~TRP**


	6. Introductions

**Rewrite #1 for Ch6. The original sucked, and I will be going through the previous chapters touching them up a little. I also hope to have Ch7 out on Friday, though I will be shortening my chapters from a goal of 3k words to a goal of 2k words. 3k is frustratingly hard to reach, considering it's the average word count here.**

* * *

"Okay everyone, listen to me!"

Weiss Schnee was a woman of action! A woman with a future, goals, hopes, dreams, all the works. She was not going to let some measly waterworld bring an end to her career, her future! Even if it did have some terrifying lifeforms living on it. Humanity had made a project out of subjugating far more hostile planets than this one to their whim, they would be more than capable of surviving here. There were eight of them here, and she knew they weren't the only survivors – a ship with several thousand crew couldn't be reduced to a mere eight just by crash landing, right? Most of them were probably still stuck in the ship itself, or had landed elsewhere on the planet and were planning to return to the ship for it's supplies. Regardless, as the person in charge of the entire operation it was her responsibility to ensure they all did their jobs and everything was taken care of.

"We need to do this by the book – it was written for a reason, after all! The first step is, I believe, to take an inventory of items we have access to and skills that everyone here specializes in. We can introduce ourselves in the process. I'll go first. I am Weiss Schnee, the overseer of this entire venture. With the exception of passengers, you all work for me, and I expect that to be respected. Those of you who were passengers, as per the handbook you are now considered emergency employees and will be paid appropriately. I am skilled in management, resource allocation, finances, and public relations. Yang, you're up next."

Giving a sigh far too heavy for the situation, Yang cracked her neck and utterly brutalized the concept of language.

"Name's Yang. You can call me Yangster if you feel up to it."

"Whooo! Yangster!"

"Right. Jokes aside, I'm Ms. Schnee's personal bodyguard and muscle, if you attempt to cause her harm I am contractually obliged to beat you to within an inch of your life. Assuming I feel up to it, which I don't at the moment considering the number of things that have tried to eat me today. My skillset is combat-centric. I can fight stuff, I can do basic first aid, I can cook food if I need to and I'm willing to take a shot at literally anything in order to survive. Okay, who's next?"

"Oh, me me me!"

Weiss turned her critical eye on the new speaker, a woman with green eyes and orange hair set into a tight bun on the back of her head. She had just a hint of gray showing she was probably in her mid-eighties, assuming she hadn't had any regenerative therapy. The lines on her face showed someone who enjoyed life and was always ready to smile, and her eyes were bright and cheerful despite their current situation. She was also clearly capable in combat and more than a little enthusiastic.

"Very well then, ah…?"

"NORA VALKYRIE! I'm a security guard from the ship! I like hitting things until they stop hitting back! My skillset is basically combat, combat, and combat, but I've been told I make an excellent chef. That's because of Ren, he's my husband, he taught me how to cook after I get us food poisoning that one time on Pegon 3. Ah, good times… Anyway! I'm also good at moving heavy objects! So just call me if ya need stuff moved or things killed! Oh! This is Jauney! He's gonna make me famous!"

With that, all heads turned the blond man next to her, who had a bemused expression on his face. Dashing good looks, a frame built for the holo, brilliant blue eyes with a spark of creativity in them, this man literally oozes charisma, kindness, and general confidence that he can handle it. The only flaw that Weiss could find was his age – he couldn't be a day over thirty, probably much younger.

"As Nora said, my name is Jaune. Please don't call me Jauney okay? Nora gets away with it because she drove off a giant monster that wanted to eat us. I'm a reporter – pretty famous in the Mistralian Empire actually – and I am currently engaged to the main captain of the ship, Pyrrha. I was merely a passenger, but that was to stay with Pyr and to visit my parents at Degasi when we do the supply stop. Now I'm here, but we'll pull through. I'm willing to openly admit that I don't have a huge amount of practical skill for survival, but I'm capable of taking excellent pictures so we can document our time here for later expeditions to rely on. I'm also willing to learn, and I'm always ready to help."

"Don't be so humble Jauney! You came up with that plan to escape the giant seamonster, and it worked! I mean the monster came back, but the plan itself worked fine! He's got himself a head on those shoulders, is what I'm sayin'!"

"Thanks, Nora…"

"Yes, thank you Mrs. Valkyrie. I'll be sure to remember his… planning abilities when we need them. You, with the brown hair, what's your story?"

"Oh! Uh… I'm Dove. Dove Bronzewing. I was just a passenger, and I'm not really good at anything… I'll try, but… yeah…"

"I'm sure you'll be just fine, Mr. Bronzewing!"

"Thanks? You're augmented?"

"She also has no experience with living creatures – at all. She's a full spacer."

The group looked at their youngest member, a girl with metallic silver eyes, skin tinted blue as if she was freezing, hair that was black at the roots but turned redder as it got longer, and metal lines that ran along her body. They observed the large headlamp built into her skull, along with an entire headpiece that went from ear to ear like a pair of headphones, but part of her body, with it's soft red glow and overtones of pink. The girl's wetsuit left little to the imagination, which normally would be good but in this case made it very clear that she had full-body augmentation – they could see bumps and ridges and unnatural shapes in near-perfect detail, especially on her back as she did a little twirl in the water. By Oum her back – a complete mess of bumps, pits, flat patches, and more. Knowing she's augmented and a spacer she could be almost any age – possibly even barely eight or nine years old, if they accelerated her growth like spacers normally do for augmented.

"So… what can you do, miss…?"

"Ruby Rose! I'm an engineer, like my boss Boss. He taught me a lot about living things today! Honestly… this is my first real job. Working small training jobs around the station really doesn't count… but I can say that I'm more than capable of being useful to the Company! I can fix almost anything artificial, I'm great at reengineering technology, I know how to build basic tools and even fairly complex tools if I can get components. I don't eat as much as bios like you do, but I do need to be exposed to sunlight or plugged into a battery system or energy supply in order to ensure I don't power down. Oh! I can be in sunlight to do it because I have solar cells in my skin, it's why I seem a tiny bit blue in color. But yeah, I can be useful!"

* * *

Jaune frowned at the statement made by this small girl. While he knew that certain parts of the galaxy treated Augmented as machines to be used and then disposed of, he had been led to believe that the STC was one of the groups that merely viewed them as second or third class citizens. The way she behaved… well, to Jaune's experienced eyes, she was clearly trying to be peppy and cheerful while hiding that she is legitimately afraid of being deemed useless. He would need to talk to Ms. Schnee about this later. For now, he would observe to make sure nobody here was sowing discontent through the group – a small group like their couldn't survive if divided against itself, and even the least competent Augmented was inherently better with machines and technology than a dozen skilled engineers. The group couldn't afford to lose her.

Luckily for Jaune, he wasn't the only one who thought as much.

"She really can. Saved my life by rebuilding our seaglides to work in the deep ocean and be even faster than normal. Speaking of seaglides, we've got two of them – speed enhanced at the very least."

"Thanks for the heads up. Who're you, by the way?"

The middle-aged man paused, seeming to realize his mistake, then chuckled. His dark blue hair matching with similarly colored eyes* were calm and measured, though with a hint of worry and fear lingering for those (like Jaune) who could see them. The man was a coward at heart, but had managed to earn respect and authority and didn't want to lose it.

"I am Sky Lark, head of Engineering. Ms. Rose here is my best engineer – better even than me, much as I dislike admitting such. I'm capable of all the basic engineering stuff – machine repair and maintenance, tool repair and maintenance, salvaging damaged equipment, piloting most vehicles, the works. Nothing fancy, as I was mostly in charge of making sure the rest didn't screw up. That said, as head of Engineering I can get us direct access to pretty much any part of the ship – my passcodes are surpassed only by head of Security and the Captains own."

"That'll come in handy I'm sure. I believe the last one is the… faunus girl. Anyone know about her?"

Jaune hummed and took this moment to observe his new "boss", Weiss Schnee. She had rather impressive white hair, likely engineered to be so, and eyes like blue ice. Everything about her screamed out to the heavens "asshole manager" like that one time Jaune had worked for Lauren. Damn bitch tried to fire him for nothing. That aside, she seemed competent enough, and he was willing to let her handle things… for now. If she got racist or proved less than competent he would step in and take over. Or enable someone else to do so, at the least.

"I, uh… I know a little. She's a biologist, cat faunus from the ears. She's very enthusiastic about her job, and seems to have a special fondness for fish… I hope that wasn't racist to tell you… Uh… she is a little reckless when it comes to exploring, hence her injury, but otherwise she seems to be a normal enough person."

"Well, that's… useful. A biologist-"

"Blake Belladonna, aged 32. She is registered as an emergency doctor, able to fix people who are injured or broken, but specializes in animal behavior and identification. She was sent along in case the ship stumbled upon forms of zero-G organisms that could have interfered with the project or posed a threat."

The group turned, looking at Ruby, who had spoken up. More than a few eyes were wide, eyebrows raised.

"What?"

"How did you know that?"

"I linked to her PDA and looked over the information there."

"Oh. Well, don't do that again without my permission."

"Sorry…"

"Breach of privacy aside, can you use your… abilities to keep track of our inventory as we go over it now?"

"Yes! Yes I can! I'm useful see."

"Yes, yes you are. Now then, what exactly do we have in stock?"

"Sorry Ma'am, but all of our supplies are still in the sunk lifepod."

"B-back in the red grassy area?"

"Yep… ain't that a bitch?"

"Well on the bright side, at you can still reach your pod – ours is sunk at the bottom of a huge trench with a giant ghost-worm-eel!"

"A what?"

"It looks like a cross between an eel and a worm, with a hammerhead head and it was see-through. Tried to eat us."

"Yeah, what Boss said!"

"That's… but… things like that can't exist!"

"Why not?"

"BECAUSE THAT'S TOO DAMN TERRIFYING!"

"Why is it-"

Interjecting, Jaune decided to get the situation back on track before it spiraled out of everyone's control and devolved into a debate over what they actually saw.

"Our lifepod – and all supplies included – is out of reach as well."

"It's just a giant monster fish, Jauney, we can totally take it!"

"No. No we can't."

"I took out one of its eyes!"

"And it has like three more."

"ENOUGH! So three of the four pods we know about are fully missing. Okay. But what do we HAVE?"

"The two boosted seaglides a single repair tool, a fire extinguisher, combat knives, and Lifepod 5. The last on that list comes with an infinite energy source, but slow-charging. It also has a basic fabricator, a medkit fabricator, a receive-only system-range radio, twenty-two nutrient blocks, several long-lasting reusable flares, and seven bottles of purified water."

The group is once again brought to silence by their youngest member, who is once again confused as to why everyone is silent.

"Did I do a wrong again?"

"No… just… how did you know that?"

"I've been paying attention to the conversation and the people here. Plus, all lifepods come with standard systems – battery pack, solar charging, fabricator, medkit fabricator, RO-SR radio, single storage unit, fire extinguisher – and Blake inventoried their storage before they left."

"Oh. Is that everything we have to work with then?"

"No, you also have myself, Ruby Rose. I have a built-in scanner unit to identify substances, life forms, and information from data chips. If you can get something in my hands I can tell you what it is."

"That's very useful actually.'

"Yay!"

Jaune hummed, doing some quick math in his head and coming up decidedly short on pretty much everything they would need to survive. It seemed that Weiss, Yang, and Nora had done pretty much the same thing, if the meaningful looks they gave each other was anything to go by. Weiss decided to break that news to the rest of the group in her typical fashion.

"So, we our current supplies we won't even last the week. Simple but true. As such we will need to conserve water for the most vulnerable of our group – that is, those with the least physical stamina and ability."

"That means that in order of priority it goes Blake due to her injuries, Ruby due to her usefulness and Augmented status-"

"Actually I can go for a good four days without water before I begin to suffer from dehydration."

"Oh. In that case, Blake still, then the Ma'am, then Dove, Sky, Jaune, Myself, Nora, and Ruby. We only have… seven was it?"

"Yes, seven bottles of purified water."

"Seven bottles of water, so Ruby will need to go without for sure. Nora, can you go without until we get to the ship? Cool. I can too, for now. We'll let each of the first five get themselves a drink and then save the three remaining bottles for later."

"Yang, I'm the one in charge, please remember that."

"I didn't think it needed executive authority, Ma'am. Sorry."

"Whatever. Xaio-Long isn't wrong. I need a drink… and water too."

"Amen to that!"

Jaune snorted, but couldn't bring it to disagree with them – a stiff drink would work wonders for him right now. Turning towards the ship, the young reporter hummed to himself and thought ' _But seriously, what could have brought us down?_ ' It was only after he noticed all the conscious survivors looking at him that Jaune realized he'd spoken out loud.

"Uh."

"Smooth, Jauney. But I do agree – maybe Captain Nikos could make a mistake due to her youth, but my husband would never have allowed a screwup this big. Something more than just a mechanical error must've happened – and it's even fishier – heh, fishier, we're on a waterworld, heh – that we're the second ship to crash here. Maybe something in orbit that we didn't see or detect?"

"Not impossible, though unlikely. We're more likely to have been sabotaged than to have encountered something a ship like ours can't detect but which could also take us out of orbit. I would know, I was in charge of maintaining the sensor array."

"I agree with Boss. The ship wouldn't have been caught by surprise, not on this scale. It was no accident. Maybe it was the alien technology on 4546B?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"What?"

"What do you mean "What"?! ALIEN TECHNOLOGY?! Why did you only mention this NOW?!"

"BOSS WAS THERE TOO OKAY! I thought it wasn't important since he didn't mention it!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Okay in my defense, today has been a terrible day for all of us."

* * *

Blake woke up with a start, attempted to jolt into an upright position, felt agony across her entire chest region, and then nearly passed out again from the pain alone. It was only once the pain passed that she noted the sound that had awakened her. A steady beeping noise. From the radio unit. Groaning and wondering if this was from a ship that was now coming for THEIR emergency signal, Blake managed to carefully get on her feet and reach the device. Pressing the button to listen to the message, Blake froze instantly at the inhuman voices from the device.

 **[** **Prime Directive: Maintain Planetary Quarantine for planet designated -{GALUNGA}-.** **]  
[** **Directive Order: Exterminate Surviving Interlopers -{Kharaa}- must be contained.** **]  
[** **Directive Order: Eliminate Primary Interloper Ship Possesses FTL Drive.** **]**

"What the hell is this? Some kind of messed up transmission?"

Despite her self-reassurance, Blake couldn't help the foreboding sensation slowly filling her up. There was something… wrong about that transmission. Something that should not have been. Deciding to risk injury to her ribs, which were still cracked, Blake exited her lifepod to speak with the others.

"Aliens?! On this waterworld?! That's ridiculous!"

"I know, I know! But I also know exactly what I saw. There's no way that vent thing was a piece of rubble or a naturally occurring structure. It was definitely artificial. Now… alien? Maybe, maybe not. But artificial? Definitely."

"What's this about aliens?"

"Woah! Blake are you sure you-"

"Yes. What's this about aliens?"

"Why so curious?"

"Because I just checked Lifepod 5's RO-SR radio, we got a three-part message in a language I've never even heard before. It was… horrible. Like, the stuff of nightmares."

"Okay this planet just got 500% more terrifying okay? And it was already the most terrifying planet I've ever been on… and I did a report on the Kharaa Conflict at one point! Can we maybe skip attempting to sleep tonight and go straight for the ship? I'd feel a lot safer with several hundred thousand tons of steel and armor surrounding me."

"As much as I would love to just go to the-"

At this moment, all of their PDA's went off simultaneously. They carried with them a single, terrifying message. A message to crush hope and bring in the tide of despair.

 **[Alert: Energy readings from the _Beacon_ indicate critical failure of Drive Core Containment. Effective immediately all personnel are to evacuate crash region. Quantum Detonation imminent.]**

"Fuck fuck fuck no!"

* * *

Nora whipped her head around toward the _Beacon_ to stare for a moment with wide eyes. The immense capital ship was supposed to be able to withstand pretty much anything – hell, it had crashed FROM ORBIT and managed to come out with almost no external signs of damage. But the alert couldn't be wrong – and Nora needed to be there, NOW, with Renny. Nora didn't even hesitate, leaping from her place sitting on the orange float of the lifepod and into the water, swimming at full speed for the _Beacon_. She needed to rescue Renny. She needed to. It was necessary.

And then she was being weighed down by something far too heavy, far too dense, to be human. Turning a rage-filled glare towards the soon-to-be-dead Augmented girl, Nora slammed a fist into her face even as she tried to struggle free, thrashing in the ocean. Then the rest of the group was on her, dragging her back towards the lifepod. She could see Jaune helping them, a look a grief on his face but also a look of determination.

And then the southeastern sky was lit with the light of a fallen sun and everything faded to white and loud.

 **AN: Sorry for taking like... 9 months to update this. A combination of writers block, other stories, and then a rough patch in life that started with my computer kicking the bucket and only ended a few days ago led to limited updates for this. Regardless, I plan to have Ch7 up on Friday, barring emergencies, and will make an effort not to take 9 more months to reach Ch10.**

 **Also, Ren is dead, if you hadn't figured it out already. Next chapter will start with a Ren POV before we return to our band of survivors as they try to avoid superheated shrapnel from a detonating starship.**

 **The alien communication will eventually be translated, FYI. It's not gibberish though - just used the "symbols" font option on Word.**

 **Next update will be "Trading One World for Another" either tonight or tomorrow before I work. RatD and RotS will both hopefully update by next Wednesday. Fallout: New Remnant will hopefully be out by next Friday.**

 **I've said this before and I'll say it again, if I ever stop updating a fic I WILL produce a final "summary" chapter that goes over the general plot of the story and marks it complete. I will not simply leave the story hanging - even if it takes a obnoxious amount of time to update.**

 **~ Mecharic**


	7. Up in Smoke

**What's this? Mecharic actually kept a promise? Have the end times truly come?! But yeah - I said Friday, it's Friday, here's your update.**

* * *

Ruby was an Augmented individual, meaning much of her being was robotically enhanced. The enhancements were many – better motor controls, superior sensory inputs, far superior processing power (she so did love her six Gen200 Quantum Core Processors) – and useful. She could operate within a micrometer of error, she could perceive ultraviolet light and very limited infrared wavelengths, she could lift far more than her small frame would imply, and if worst came to worst she could survive without the biological aspects of her existence… though it was debatable if that was truly alive or not. However, being a marvel of technological progress did have its downsides. Besides not being able to swim properly – something she would never have worried about if not for being stranded on a planet that was entirely ocean – there were also some things that had been beneficial but suddenly weren't.

Like being able to perceive in ultra-slow motion the quantum detonation taking place in front of her, her eyes having such a massive resolution that she could see the initial cracks and bulges of the _Beacon_ 's hull before the explosion even had a chance to go supercritical. Like being able to predict how the vast ship would fail and where the shards of rubble would land. Like being able to perceive in slow motion the way everyone's eyes dimmed and their faces turned to panic. Like being able to see a certain security guard and friendly blonde both making the choice to move towards the ship despite knowing it was far too late.

Ruby's six processors all came the same conclusion at the same time, and she lunged forward and grabbed both with a hand each, launching from her perch on the top of the lifepod. She knew her weight would prevent them from getting too close to the explosion for them to avoid the shrapnel inbound. It was simple numbers, crunched and recrunched a dozen times before the explosion even became visible to the human eye. The two weren't happy with her for saving them, but Ruby was prepared for that. She just needed them to stay within a twenty foot radius of the lifepod – it was by luck or divine intervention unlikely to be struck by the debris.

Even as the two realized they had been snagged, the rest of the group managed to catch up with reality and moved forward as well, grabbing them and pulling Nora and Jaune away from the ship and into safety closer to the pod. Ruby sank like a rock for a moment before activating what amounted to internal airbags to minimize impact damage, but which could be abused to grant her the ability to float despite her weight. Reaching the surface again, she turned to face the _Beacon_ as the explosion reached it's tail end. As she watched the fireball rise up into the sky, Ruby frowned as she noticed a strange distortion at sea level. Focusing on this, her eyes widened and a shot a fear ran through her – despite her machine mind, she had forgotten a side effect of explosions in water: waves.

"TSUNAMI INBOUND, DIVE EVERYONE DIVE!"

* * *

"TSUNAMI INBOUND, DIVE EVERYONE DIVE!"

Today just could not stop getting worse could it? Despite this, Dove didn't question the cyborg as she suddenly began to sink into the ocean, and dived down after her. He couldn't see it yet, but that didn't mean it wasn't coming! Seeing the others diving down with him, Dove knew he'd made the correct choice – and knew it even more when a concussive wave of force tore across the surface with no small degree of force. It even managed to tilt the entire lifepod over nearly on its side before the pod's gravity anchor locked it back into place. Noticing rapid movement near him, Dove turned and let out a strangled gasp as he saw Nora attacking the robogirl who's name he'd just managed to forget.

Thankfully for Ruby – that was her name! – Dove wasn't the only one who saw it happening, and Yang stepped in and stopped the violence before it could end in anything more than shaken hearts and some minor injuries. As Yang moved to yank Nora towards the surface – likely for a lecture or scolding – Ruby grabbed Yang's leg and shook her head, pointing up and towards the ship. The cyborg then moved herself closer to a large outcropping of rock and promptly got herself a solid grip. Trusting her hadn't led him wrong yet, so Dove followed suit. A few minutes later the tsunami passed overhead, completely submerging the lifepod and sending a powerful surge of force through the shallows they were in. Small fish were swept away with the surge, then swept back as the ocean settled, and Dove whimpered as he heard the sound of several of those terrifying exploding fish waking up and then doing as they seemed to be meant to – exploding that is – before the water settled down fully. Sandy, murky, and probably full of monsters.

Joy.

* * *

Yang was furious – not only with Nora for attacking their most important member, but also with herself for not realizing that an explosion of such magnitude would result in a tsunami. Granted, she had never been on a waterworld before and had never seen a ship explode like that before, but still! It was just basic physics. Regardless, they had survived, in no small part thanks to their resident cyborg, and now Yang could give Nora the scolding she deserved.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT?!"

"I-"

"YOU TRIED TO MURDER SOMEONE!"

"Look-"

"SHE LITERALLY SAVED ALL OUR WORTHLESS SKINS AND YOU TRIED TO KILL HER!"

"SHE KEPT ME FROM SAVING RENNY!"

"NO SHE DAMN WELL DIDN'T SHE SAVED YOU FROM THAT HEAP OF RUBBLE!"

The heap of rubble Yang was referring to was not, in fact, the _Beacon_ – or even it's still-smoldering remains as they burned away. No, this rubble was a large chunk of the hull and some external storage units (for when people needed items but were on a spacewalk) that had at some point landed within twenty feet of the lifepod. It had landed right where Nora and Jaune would most likely have been at the time of its landing – or so Yang assumed, since Ruby had worked so hard to keep them all in place. The entire piece of wreckage was still superheated, the edges cherry-red and bubbles rising from them as they boiled the water.

"But-"

"NO BUTS! Ruby saw the tsunami, she saw the debris falling, she almost definitely knew what was going to happen! Even if she didn't, she at least realized that by the time we got that message there was no saving anyone onboard! What could you have even done in a three seconds between the warning and the explosion anyway?!"

"I… I… I don't know. But at least I could have tried!"

"You would have died."

All heads turned to Jaune, who was rubbing his face as he tried to contain his grief long enough for this to be settled. Frankly both he and Nora looked like complete and utter messes, and considering who they definitely lost in that explosion… well, Yang didn't blame them. The other members of their group were huddled around the lifepod – Yang gave a silent thanks to whoever invented gravity anchors – and were decidedly not getting involved. Cowards.

"Ja-"

"We would have died. We wouldn't have saved them. They… we… it was too late. You know this is true."

"How can you be so callus?!"

"I'm not. I'm being realistic. Your Ren and my… my Pyrrha are both dead. They were dead the moment that alert came through. All we can do now is live – for them. They wouldn't want us to follow them any time soon."

Yang nodded approvingly and turned back to Nora.

"He's right. This isn't my first op to go wrong, and I doubt it's yours either. Granted… never gone THIS wrong before, but the point stands. We gotta live. And that means we need our little Augie. She's probably key to getting into what's left of the _Beacon_ and finding other wreckage sites."

At this, Weiss decided to speak up. After all, the hard and scary part was over.

"Why do you think that?"

"She predicted that chunk of rubble landing where it did – or near enough – so it makes sense that she would also have an idea as to where the rest landed. We can salvage materials from them while the main wreck cools off and finishes collapsing, and then we can see if there's enough inside to salvage anything of this situation."

"That… makes sense. I will admit, the book no longer applies. I think it stopped applying somewhere between the giant tadpoles with fangs and those giant leech things."

"Speaking of our resident Augie, where did she go anyway?"

The entire group went silent for a moment before realizing their most important member was missing, and likely had been for a while. Diving down they found one of the two powerglides missing as well.

"Oh for the love of… great. Now we need to find her. Any ideas?"

"I can set my PDA to track hers, being her boss and all. But I'm not capable of going after her – I don't have the strength or skill to pull that off."

"I can go after her."

"You're probably the reason she left, honestly."

"I know. But Yang is needed here – someone needs to keep the rest of them alive – and I can convince Ruby to come back to base. I doubt you could, since you didn't scare her away."

"I… I guess that's true. Very well. You can go out after her, I'll handle survival here. However, as you can tell the sun is setting… And I don't want to risk it in the dark. You're definitely good, but not that good. The Augie will just have to survive 'till tomorrow."

"But-"

"No. Buts. We can't afford to lose two of us tonight."

"Ruby will be fine. She's Augmented, you know."

"What does-"

"She can see in the dark, won't get tired as easily, and can go without food or water for longer than we can. Her greatest threat is the wildlife, and even then her physical body is sturdy – she can hold her own. She'll be fine."

"I… if you say so. I don't like the idea of me being responsible for someone else's death though."

"Well I don't like the idea of losing our most important member, all things considered, so nobodies happy. Yay."

And on that depressing note to end a miserable day, the group began to rotate sleeping. None of them would get as much as they should, and two of them would cry themselves to sleep that night, the grief of loss seeping past the need to survive as adrenalin and fear faded down into despair.

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for shorter chapter, but I am going to be cutting them a bit sooner than I used to. I'm basically going to end a chapter when I see fit, rather than aiming for a wordcount like I used to. Granted, I still want to hit 2k a chapter, but this chapter has around 1.7k words in the chapter and I'm fine with it.**

 **Anyway, read, review, follow, fav, whatever you wanna do.**

 **And to the guy who's worried this'll be a snuff fic - don't worry. It's not a snuff fiction. The Beacon is a stand-in for the Aurora, not the Degasi. That's a whole 'nother mess entirely.**


	8. Update

Hello readers! You know I don't like to do this to you (I also don't like rerwrites, but we can't get what we want, sadly) but I'm doing a rewrite on this entire story. Why? Because, as a guest reviewer pointed out, my first chapters don't mesh at all with my most recent two. This is the fault of a large period of time between the posting of the original chapters (1-4) and the latter two (5 & 6). As such, a rewrite is in order in which I will try to get a full 10 chapters written before updating them 2 every week for 5 weeks. Sorry for that, but I want to get the first story arc written in one sitting so that the style doesn't change drastically. I also may have gone a tad bit off from my original plans for this (oops?) so I'll be trying to stay more focused than I am right now.

Again, sorry about this! I'll do my best to get the story rewrite up in a reasonable time frame, but cannot make any dates or promises. I just wanted to explain why this story won't be getting an update any time soon.

~ Mech


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